Linda McMahon's epic campaign spending paid for an army of supporters, from the college students holding signs at rallies to the cadre of expensive consultants that guided her two runs.

But in the end, the piles of money she blew through over two election cycles — a record-breaking figure expected to reach $100 million — brought her no closer to fulfilling her dream of becoming a U.S. senator. For the second time in two years, McMahon lost a Senate race by 12 points.

McMahon, a Republican who has never held elective office, joins the ranks of Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina and Ross Perot, multimillionaires who invested a fortunes in failed campaigns. An endless fountain of cash — enough to pay for a dozen offices across the state, scores of full and part-time campaign workers and a weekly onslaught of attack ads — doesn't always equal political success.

"Linda McMahon had fundamental flaws as a candidate that weren't going to go away, even if she spent a billion dollars,'' said Jennifer Steen, a professor of political science at Arizona State University and author of a book on self-funded candidates.

"She became the $100 million woman,'' Steen said. But at a certain point, money stops yielding results, she said. "Anybody with a pulse knows your story, and what you're saying about your opponent and 10,000 more TV ads aren't going to make a difference."

McMahon's supporters recoil at the notion that she was trying to buy a U.S. Senate seat. They say she needed a war chest if she hoped to overcome the built-in advantages in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by nearly 2-to-1. They also point out that she earned the money she spent, which gave her a measure of independence over opponents who had to raise cash from deep-pocketed donors.

"The money was her money and I don't think any of us can say what she should do with it,'' said Jodi Latina, who worked on McMahon's 2010 Senate campaign. "This was her focus and her dream and you can't put a price tag on someone's dream."

Army of Advisers

On election night, after Chris Murphy's victory became apparent early in the evening, McMahon told reporters she was done with politics. A day later, McMahon told Bloomberg Businessweek that she sees her campaign as an inspiration to her supporters.

"So many people have said, 'You've made me think that I can do something. You've made me look at things a new way.' I think people were more thoroughly convinced the second time around that I was passionate about these issues."

A little over three years ago, Linda McMahon was the CEO of WWE, a global wrestling and entertainment company with headquarters in Stamford. She was largely unknown outside the wrestling world when she announced in September of 2009 that she was running for the U.S. Senate against Chris Dodd, the Democratic incumbent at the time.

Connecticut voters got to know her through her relentless television ads, both the soft-focused spots that highlighted her rags-to-riches life story and the attack ads that struck at the opposition.

Some McMahon supporters say her campaign's slickly produced ads failed to capture her strengths as a candidate. Joe Markley, a Republican state senator and strong McMahon supporter, visited the Wolcott Fair with her and watched as she charmed the crowd. "She was very good at working a room,'' he said.

Like many well-heeled corporate outsiders whoenter politics, McMahon relied on her army of advisers to chart the course for her campaign. Her plan, said Markley, was, "I'll hire the people who know this world and listen to them."

But it was the negative ads that came to define her, said John McKinney, the Republican leader of the Connecticut Senate. McKinney visited polling stations across Fairfield County on Election Day and heard from many voters who were worn out by the nasty tenor of the race.

"The overwhelming majority of people singled out the McMahon campaign," McKinney said, even though McMahon was also the target of negative commercials run by Murphy and liberal groups that backed him.

McKinney said McMahon's money became a dominant issue in the campaign, which, in his view, was unfair. He noted that Democrats who decried McMahon's personal spending had no problem when their fellow Democrat Jon Corzine of New Jersey spent more than $62 million of his own money to get elected to the U.S. Senate.

"At the end of the day, Democrats were successful in making her spending an issue and the media played along and I don't think it helped it," McKinney said.

No Political Plans

Former Congressman Christopher Shays, who lost the Republican Senate nomination to McMahon in a bruising primary, had harsh words for the high-priced consultants and advisers the candidate surrounded herself with.

"The people advising her were thrilled to take her money, but they knew this was a long shot,'' said Shays, whose campaign against McMahon attracted little party support.